Thursday, May 26, 2011

Gloves are Great!

I love being sexual with lots of people. I love play parties with lots of people experiencing lots of pleasure. But I'm a safer slut. I want to experience the maximum pleasure with minimum risk. One of the risks I worry about is STI transmission from body fluids on hands. (1)

I want to share one of my favorite tools for safer sex – gloves. Latex or nitrile gloves are wonderful. They make play safer and simpler which for me means my play can be sluttier.

•I can slip a glove on, play, dispose of the glove and repeat with the next partner, without getting out of bed. This is important for a slut like me.*Gloves work really well for certain kinds of sex. They reduce the chance of cutting or abrading tender skin with fingernails. They also don't absorb lube which means the genitals stay slicker longer.•For those of us who associate gloves with hot sex putting them on is a part of foreplay. If I'm tied down and my partner puts on gloves and squirts lube into their hands, my dick gets hard with anticipation.•I don’t have to worry about anything getting into any small cuts or abrasions on my own hands. (2)•Fast cleanup means I get to stay and cuddle for aftercare without feeling like I need to immediately get up and wash my hands.•I can slide my fingers into my partner’s ass, and then switch gloves if I want to finger their vagina. More holes – more fun. Urinary tract infection – less fun.•Play parties are often held in places without easy access to washing sinks.•They help you remember where your hands have been. At a recent party I was at I saw someone lend a hand to help balance a lady who was trying to gingerly step over a pile of naked people. Unfortunately the offered hand was covered in body fluids. Oops. Embarrassing.

I want to see more people use gloves in the scene, especially at parties. Risk awareness and risk management get more complicated with more people. But more people are more fun for a slut. I feel gloves are more important as more people are involved. If you go to parties or host parties I'd like you to consider the following:

•Make sure there are gloves available in every playroom at parties. Bring some to share!•If possible make hand washing facilities available with plenty of soap and hand towels. If there are no sinks near the play area sanitary wipes or sanitizing hand gel are good options.•Before using latex gloves make sure your partner doesn't have a latex allergy. The nitrile gloves these days are very good and even come in black to match your sexy outfit.•Never tried using gloves? Go ahead and bust that cherry!•If you don't want to or can't play with gloves please make an extra effort to wash your hands afterwards. Especially before you switch partners or head to the buffet for a post-play snack.

Keep it slutty and safer! Gloves are a great way to do it!

(1) The author doesn’t know of any studies that quantify risks, but there are several studies that suggest this is a possible infection method, most of them about women who have sex with women (WSW). For example:

(2) It is commonly accepted in the medical profession that open cuts and abrasions make it easy to contract an infection. Many people have small cuts and abrasions, such as hangnails, on their hands and don’t even know it.

Yes to gloves...I work in a lab and have been a fan of this kind of protection for a long time. They come in cool colors too (if the typical beige makes you think of dental work) like the black ones Holly linked to and my personal favorite are the purple nitrile ones :)

Oh, and I forgot to add that size matters with gloves. If you get the right fit, they literally "fit like a glove" and stay put while preserving sensation. Loose-fitting gloves that slide around and have extra material hanging over the tops of the fingers are NOT sexy or functional. If, like me, you have small hands, the difference between an XS and a S is huge!